Articles: coronavirus.
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We evaluated if interventions aimed at air travellers can delay local severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) community transmission in a previously unaffected country. ⋯ Syndromic screening and traveller sensitisation in combination may have marginally delayed SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in unaffected countries.
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Australia implemented a travel ban on China on 1 February 2020, while COVID-19 was largely localized to China. We modelled three scenarios to test the impact of travel bans on epidemic control. Scenario one was no ban; scenario two and three were the current ban followed by a full or partial lifting (allow over 100 000 university students to enter Australia, but not tourists) from the 8th of March 2020. ⋯ Travel restrictions were highly effective for containing the COVID-19 epidemic in Australia during the epidemic peak in China and averted a much larger epidemic at a time when COVID-19 was largely localized to China. This research demonstrates the effectiveness of travel bans applied to countries with high disease incidence. This research can inform decisions on placing or lifting travel bans as a control measure for the COVID-19 epidemic.